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Greivis Vasquez is good enough to be a starting NBA point guard. He has been one before, and likely will be again.

He is big and smart and seemingly impervious to the pressure that goes with taking a big shot or making a big play.

But he’s also smart enough to realize what’s important, what truly matters in the end. And even after his first start of the season for the Raptors, he knows what’s best for him and his teammates.

“When I came here, I really humbled myself and understood it’s about winning more than about putting up numbers,” Vasquez said after taking over for the injured Kyle Lowry and helping the Raptors to an important 107-103 victory over the Houston Rockets at the Air Canada Centre on Wednesday night.

“I could go out there and play 36 minutes and put up crazy numbers, but what about the playoffs? What about making winning plays?”

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That’s the kind of attitude that embodies this current group, and it was never more evident in their win over the Rockets despite the absence of Lowry and Amir Johnson, who left after three minutes with a tweaked right ankle.

There is no moping, no excuse making; this team sucks it up and gets on with the business at hand.

“We have already proven we have a team. This is not two guys, three guys . . . it’s a complete team effort night in and night out,” said Vasquez, who played a season-high 40 minutes with 15 points and eight assists. “We’re only as good as the last two guys on the bench, which is Steve Novak and Landry Fields, and those two guys can play on any team in this league.

“The biggest thing about our team is that we’re always ready, any of us, because you never know.”

The win had major implications in Toronto’s chase for the second Atlantic Division title it the 19-year history of the franchise.

Coupled with Brooklyn’s loss to the New York Knicks, the Raptors now have a 2 1/2 game lead on the Nets in the Atlantic Division with seven games left in the regular season.

And it also allowed the Raptors, 43-32, to keep pace with the Chicago Bulls for third overall in the Eastern Conference after the Bulls beat the Atlanta Hawks.

That it was accomplished without two starters was impressive. Lowry wasn’t expected to play by many after banging knees with LeBron James in Miami on Monday. Examinations showed no structural damage, but it was obvious watching him walk up the tunnel to the locker room before the game that there was some discomfort.

Johnson, however, was a surprise. He started the game but lasted less than three minutes before one of his chronically tweaked ankles acted up.

“It’s going to be a come-and-go-thing with him,” said coach Dwane Casey. “He’s battled through it, he’s fought through it as much as he could and he just planted and it went on him.”

Out go two, in come two.

Vasquez was solid, Nando De Colo was serviceable in a 12-minute backup role and Patrick Patterson shook off any lingering rust from his 11-game absence to provide eight points in 25 minutes. John Salmons had a breakthough 12-point night and Tyler Hansbrough rescued the Raptors from a sluggish start with an energetic night.

But when push came to shove, the team’s best player was its best player. Even though he got more defensive attention than he normally does, DeMar DeRozan tossed up a 29-point, six-rebound, four-assist night.

His best play was on the defensive end, however; he stepped in and took a charge with the Rockets making a late-game run that was reminiscent of the kind of “winning-time” plays the absent Lowry would make.

“He’s playing an old man’s game, he played great,” Casey said of DeRozan. “The charge was huge. Those are the kinds of winning plays he’s learning to make and he’s making now.

“He’s doing a great job of scoring but there are so many other things. Especially with Kyle out, he’s got to do a lot more — assists, defence, a lot of different things.”

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